[mythtv] Which Distro?

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Sun, Dec 22, 2002 at 03:31:51PM -0700, Ray wrote:

> On Sun, Dec 22, 2002 at 03:09:33PM -0500, Matt Zimmerman wrote:
> > On Sun, Dec 22, 2002 at 12:28:15PM -0700, Ray wrote:
> > > Any chance the stuff (debian/rules etc.) to make debian packages from
> > > the source could go into the Myth source?
> > 
> > I am of the opinion that this is usually not a good idea.  What problem
> > do you hope to solve in this case?
> 
> Mainly I'd like to be able to easily make debs from cvs.  I know the state
> of cvs at the moment makes this a non-issue but until recently there have
> been good reasons for many people to use cvs and I expect that it will go
> back to that state in the future. 

In order to be of any use, this would require that the packaging metadata in
CVS be kept in sync with the rest of MythTV as it evolves.  This would be a
lot of extra work (for me), and would probably result in more broken
packages, pleas for help, etc.  than anything else.  Broken upgrades from a
half-baked deb built from CVS are something that I do not wish to support.
For example, the packaging is currently undergoing a complete metamorphosis
in order to reflect the new client/server setup.

Also, the packages, from time to time, require changes to other parts of the
source code (outside of the debian/ directory).  This would require a
branch, or some other means to separate these changes.

If someone wants to make a monolithic bare-bones binary package which just
drops all of the files in the right places and allows them to be removed, I
have no objection, but the current packages are much more sophisticated, and
I intend to support smooth upgrades between packaged releases.  Without
that, you might as well use a tar instead of something like a deb.

Basically, the packaging is about integration with the rest of the Debian
system, and non-trivial integration only works well with static releases,
not an ever-changing CVS swamp.

-- 
 - mdz